


200-word Novels

by janey_p



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: 200-word novels, Challenges, Coincidences, Crimes & Criminals, Drabble Collection, Drama, Fantasy, Gen, Humor, Mystery, Science, Short Stories, Spooky, Superstition, prompt sentences
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-24
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2017-12-30 08:57:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 5,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1016646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janey_p/pseuds/janey_p
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of short stories of about 200 words in length each. Mostly stand-alone chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Left Alone

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [200-Wörter-Romane](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1137016) by [janey_p](https://archiveofourown.org/users/janey_p/pseuds/janey_p). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little fantasy/mystery piece.  
> The bold part is the prompt.

**When she turned around, he was gone.**

Strange. She didn’t think anybody could run down a corridor that fast – especially without making the slightest noise.

She went back to the end of the corridor and looked into the stairwell. Nobody was in there. And there weren’t any noises either. No footsteps, no clicks of opening or closing doors, no swishing of clothes, no breathing – apart from her own…

“Jake?”

She was annoyed at how tentative her voice sounded. But in spite of that it still resonated for a surprisingly long time. Seriously: Was she starring in a corny horror movie now? What would be next? A shrill scream from the basement?

When suddenly the corridor looked blurred and superimposed by another room instead, she almost wished she had actually been right with her assumption. She shook her head and ran her trembling hands down her face, hoping it would help to banish the double image. But it stayed, even started to waver and move – as if two realities were fighting for dominance. And to top it all, her heart beat simultaneously seemed to pick up speed and sound duller and duller.

She didn’t feel her body hitting the floor anymore.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just started this project yesterday. So I'll have to see how long I'll stick with it.  
> Originally, it was a challenge posted in a German regional magazine which gave its readers a sentence and challenged them to write 200 words for it (about a year ago).
> 
> A friend and I adopted the idea and we're now giving each other sentences to write shorties for. The 200 words are just a guideline that we may or may not heed. :D  
> This first story was written in German, then translated into English. All following shorties will most likely be translations as well.
> 
> Not sure how often I'll write something for this project. Daily might be aiming too high - especially if I really write all stories in 2 languages...
> 
> I'm posting the German Originals as well, btw. Those of you who are bilingual will probably notice a few inaccuracies in my translations, but sometimes it's just not possible to find exact equivalents AND keep the word count at 200... *shrug*


	2. Let's go hunting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, the bold text is the prompt.

**But what bothered them the most, was that their hunt for the beast had been unsuccessful again –** because the odds had really been good this time. And then Carver had fucked up big time. After all: who was stupid enough to shoot at such a creature? You only did something like that if you were serious about committing suicide.

So now that nightmare was back out there, and they’d have to start their search again – with only four hunters, since Carver would stay in the infirmary until further notice. Carrie hoped he wouldn’t come back to the team and that they’d get somebody with some common sense instead.

She wondered what shape the beast had adopted now. In the chaos that had followed Carver’s shooting, she had witnessed several transformations. Among those, the big predators had actually scared her the least. When it escaped, the thing had looked like an ordinary human. And if this specimen could achieve a humanoid shape and maybe even convincingly portray one, then it stood to reason that others would manage, as well. If that was the case, they wouldn’t be able to trust anyone anymore…

This job really wasn’t like she had imagined it!


	3. They grow up so fast!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A rather nostalgic story, this time. ^^

**His thoughts returned to the moment he first met her.** Had it really been fifteen years already?

The frightened little girl of the past had grown up to be a confident young woman. He was proud of her, of course he was, even though he sometimes worried that her confidence would turn into hubris.

His concern wasn’t entirely unfounded: Over the years, her choice of hobbies had become increasingly reckless. Recently, she’d been interested in extreme sports and frequently returned home with various minor injuries.

It had been so much easier, years ago, when she was still in love with books and fluffy rodents... Sometimes he wished to have those carefree days back.

On the other hand, he was glad that she didn’t hide from sudden, loud noises anymore. That she didn’t cry herself to sleep anymore and had stopped to cling to her stuffed toy in desperation. He would probably have to get used to the thought that his Little One was a girl who leaned towards extremes. But would that really help him worry less?

He kind of doubted it – because even though he wasn’t her biological father, she would always be the one closest to his heart.


	4. Totally normal reaction...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some humor today.

**A thread of crochet yarn had wrapped itself around the cable that moored the rotten boat to the pier** – which raised the question how it even got there. This mystery soon had the whole town curious.

Lizzie, the youngest daughter of the postman, had found it after a fishing expedition with her uncle. It had actually been easy to spot, as it was neon yellow and dangled in the water in two long loops.

The mayor had decreed its removal right away, which turned out to be quite challenging. Several onlookers had tried to prove their skill, but wind and water had firmly attached the thread to the cable.

The crowd even caught the attention of the local paper’s reporter.

“You’re all deranged!” The pharmacist shook his head. “As if some string were worth all that fuss.”

Nobody paid attention to him, so he shrugged and went back to work. He’d just let them make fools of themselves. He had better things to do.

Grandma Thea watched the hubbub from her front garden and laughed. Nobody seemed to complain about being bored anymore. Mischievously, she tugged at the yellow lace of her shawl and congratulated herself on her brilliant idea.


	5. This is Halloween!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be a little scary?  
> Only if you're easily spooked, though. ;)

**He’d already jolted awake twice tonight.** Every time he’d thought he’d heard something strange. And every time he’d found nothing that could have explained it. He was beginning to doubt his own sanity over it. Something was definitely wrong here!

He’d then decided to stay awake for the rest of the night, but his fatigue had been stronger.

\---

This time he didn’t wake up abruptly. Instead, it seemed like the night was gradually creeping into his dream. The noise had returned. At first, it was barely audible, easy to ignore over the rush of the waves in his favorite beach scene. But while the sound was gaining volume, the beach was slowly disappearing into the darkness.

His heart was beating faster, and sweat ran into his eyes, even though he felt cold. Was he awake? Was he still dreaming? He couldn’t tell for sure. But he wanted it to stop!

When a faint light approached him, he was finally able to identify the sound as a voice. It sounded familiar, even though he hadn’t heard it in years.

Then it whispered into his ear: “Nice to have you here. We missed you a lot.”

He didn’t hear his heartbeat anymore...


	6. Between Worlds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some fantasy, today.  
> In a way, despite its only 200 words, it could be called a never-ending story. ;)

**Zola presses her cat to her chest and jumps.**

Neither she nor Fluffy are particularly fond of that, but it is – yet again – their only chance to escape. The worst thing isn’t even the strange feeling in her stomach while they’re suspended in nothingness for a moment. No, the worst thing is the uncertainty where their jump would bring them this time – and Fluffy’s claws that penetrate the fabric of Zola’s shirt.

Fortunately, these jumps never last long. Usually, she was on firm ground again after two or three breaths.

It’s foggy when they land this time. How annoying! How is she supposed to find out where they are now? To top it all, Fluffy mews quite miserably and stares over her shoulder, mesmerized.

Zola really doesn’t want to turn around to see what her cat has discovered. Somehow she feels – yet again – that things will go downhill very soon.

So she isn’t surprised when suddenly a huge black beast huffs its hot breath in her direction. Fight or flight? She chooses strategic retreat.

While she’s running, a deep hole opens in the ground a few feet in front of her.

Zola presses her cat to her chest and jumps.


	7. Friday the 13th

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this day a lucky or an unlucky day for the narrator? What do you think? :D

**That evening – it was Friday the thirteenth – I stood alone in a corner of the room.**

Somehow, I felt much safer there. There wasn’t even a reason for my apprehension, because the room looked like it always did. Everything was where it belonged; the door and the windows were closed; there weren’t any strange noises. And yet, I couldn’t will myself to sit down at the table.

Before I had gotten into this peculiar mood, I had just laid the table for dinner. Now, my stomach gave a fierce rumble at the sight. And _yet_ , I stayed in the corner.

I’ve never been superstitious before – have always laughed at the people who believed in lucky charms and talismans, panicked over broken mirrors or gave black cats a wide berth. Friday the thirteenth had always been a day like any other to me. So what was different, this time? I still wasn’t superstitious, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom either.

A loud crash jolted me out of my thoughts. I couldn’t quite believe my eyes, but the ceiling lamp had fallen onto the table! The shards had scattered over the entire room.

And I could finally move again.


	8. Misconceptions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't judge a book by its cover, I'd say. :D

**I could have invented an excuse so I wouldn’t have to leave the house – but I didn’t.** By now I was sick of having to behave the way that was expected of me. Everybody believed I’d have to suffer from PTSD and in the meantime I’d developed a massive case of cabin fever.

So I had two options: Either I’d yell at my next overprotective guest, or I’d go outside now. It wasn’t really a hard decision.

–––

I had just arrived at the park when my phone rang. That would be my mother, then: She called every day around this time “to keep you company, even if I can’t be with you, my dear”. That was so annoying! As if I always needed someone around to hold my hand, in order to feel safe – even though I was really good at looking after myself. Why else had I still had all my valuables after the mugging and the culprit a shiner and a missing tooth instead?

The ringing stopped. Oops? Seems like I accidentally pressed the wrong button…

I couldn’t suppress a smile at that: It might have been only a small act of rebellion, but I instantly felt better.


	9. Endless Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something mysterious and a little apocalyptic, today.  
> Feel free to interpret the ending as you want. ;)

**What had the power to prevent the break of dawn?** Technically nothing – so the people started to panic.

Nobody had been able to find a reason for the persistent darkness yet. Earth was definitely still rotating. There was nothing that darkened the atmosphere; no astronomical object had obscured the sun.

On the third day, it was already distinctly colder. Soon, the steadily falling temperature would become life-threatening. That had to be stopped!

In the general perplexity, some scientists suggested looking for supernatural causes, too. This was met with disapproval at first, but with each hour that passed without a solution, it gained more supporters. People were discussing resentful deities and black magic now. (Wouldn’t _that_ be gloriously ironic? The general public begged to differ.)

Meanwhile, the military was accused of having invented secret technologies and was then prompted to stop the suspected tests immediately. They denied everything, of course. They would _never_ develop technologies that would harm their own country, or so they claimed.

However, none of the theories got mankind even remotely close to salvation, because they remained theories – and that helped nobody.

During the night of the fifth day the people sighted the rise of new, unfamiliar stars...


	10. The Rejected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hardest prompt I had to write for, so far. XD  
> Turned out to be a little more depressive than what I normally do...

**The old circus horse looked thoughtfully at the torn bacon pancake.** It had been lying there for a while already, and the humans all passed it heedlessly. A few of them even stepped on it without even noticing. There wasn’t much of the pancake left anymore.

In a way, the horse thought, I’m not much better off.

Sure, it hadn’t been “thrown away” and stepped on, but ever since it had stopped being able to execute the more difficult tricks flawlessly, it was often ignored in favor of the younger horses. Occasionally, it still performed together with the clown, but that wasn’t all that great.

It saw the pity in the eyes of the artists, sometimes, and that was almost worse than staying unnoticed. It only wanted to feel needed – just like the pancake, which had just been spotted by a rat and was now dragged into the bushes. The humans might have spurned it, but at least the rat knew its worth.

–––

After the performance, the circus grounds quieted down quickly. Nobody looked after the horse – apart from little Abby, the circus director’s daughter. She hugged it and whispered conspiratorially into its ear: “We’ll go riding tomorrow. I promise.”


	11. Delayed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, those annoying relatives... ;)
> 
> My shortest prompt, so far. Quite a challenge in itself, because I could have taken it almost anywhere.

**“Hello Julie”, he said.**

Oh damn! This was very bad timing. A minute later and she’d have left the building already. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Rob. On the contrary: He was one of the nicer colleagues. Once he started talking, however…

She wondered if she’d be able to believably pretend she hadn’t heard him.

She felt a little bad at that thought, but she really didn’t have an hour to spare for him. If she wasn’t exactly on time, Bessie always got insufferable.

Before she’d reached the elevator, however, she felt a hand on her shoulder and couldn’t suppress a sigh. What now?

She put on a (hopefully) friendly smile, turned around to face Rob and prayed he wouldn’t take that as an invitation.

“Where’s the fire?” he asked, bewildered.

“Sorry.” Why was she even apologizing? “I’ll have to be at my great aunt’s at five.”

“Ah, aunt Bessie?”

She sighed again. Since Bessie had turned up at the company to “make sure you leave work on time for once”, there weren’t many colleagues who didn’t know her.

“Then you’re running late.”

Oh really?

He ignored her eye-rolling and cheerfully said: “You know what? I’ll drive you there.”


	12. Valentine's Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... a little late to the occasion, though I guess there are some places where it's still Valentine's Day... ;)

**I meet him once a year – on Valentine’s Day.**

I noticed him for the first time eleven years ago, when – in spite of all the couples – I went to the small café on the main street alone, to rejoice in my singlehood with a cappuccino. Apparently, someone had the same idea that year, because there was that man sitting alone at a table by the window and – unlike the others – not watching the door expectantly.

Every year, he sat at the same table and watched the passing cars. He always stayed exactly two hours, stood fifteen more minutes next to the entrance and then vanished in the crowds.

Six years ago, his table was already taken when he came in, so he sat in the only free seat with a view of the street – which was at my table. The following year he sat next to me immediately. Ever since, we’ve been saving each other a seat if we haven’t arrived at the same time.

In all these years, we’ve never exchanged a single word. We still know nothing about each other, apart from being at the café each Valentine’s Day. There’s no need for more. I like our arrangement.


	13. Experiments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I’m really glad that I’m only writing these really short stories - or else I’d have had to come up with what kind of interesting experiment they are working on... ;)

**“Would you stop keeping me in suspense?”** Her lab assistant stared at her eagerly, but she didn’t really care.

“Don’t rush me!” she replied and turned her back on him. That way she didn’t just block his view, she also didn’t have to look at him anymore. Less distraction _and_ one frustrated assistant – that’s how she liked it best.

Unfortunately, he thought differently. Just when she’d turned her attention back to the experiment, he came closer.

“Can’t you show me what you’re doing?” he whined. And he wondered why nobody took him seriously...

“No.”

For one moment, there was blessed silence. He wasn’t left speechless very often, so she’d savor these precious seconds.

“But why not?” And lo and behold, he’d recovered already...

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like wiping up the mess if the experiment goes wrong. And it _will_ go wrong if you continue to disturb my concentration.”

"Wipe up? _What_ exactly are you doing?"

She could literally sense his curiosity. She did get that she had an assistant _so that he could assist her_ – and in a few minutes she would actually need his help. He’d just have to be patient until then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since it came up in a discussion about the German version of this, I’ll try to explain the situation in the story:
> 
> We don’t have an arrogant lab technician who doesn’t like her assistant here. The whole thing is pretty much just harmless banter. I think of the woman as someone who likes to do the first stages of an experiment alone, especially if it’s about “smaller experiments”. The assistant is of a rather sunny disposition who doesn’t take himself too seriously, and who enjoys his “can I join the game?” mentality. ;)  
> So a scene like this one _is_ something of a game to them. He tries to get some information “ahead of time”, and she tries to keep it all to herself, at least in the early stages.
> 
> I don’t have a clue if this could work in a real laboratory, but if not, I’ll just claim artistic license. :D


	14. Experiments 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s the point of view of the lab assistant from last chapter. :)  
> As such, “Experiments” is the first story in this collection that’s not a stand-alone.

**There seemed to be something like amusement in her eyes.** Although... not “something like”. That _definitely_ was amusement. It didn’t make much of a difference that she turned away from me. I knew it’d take a while until she’d have her expression under control again. It had always been like this in the six years we’ve been working together.

There were a few people who thought that I made it too easy for her, that I let her walk all over me and I deserved better. But those people didn’t understand our dynamics:

On my first day, she’d tested me, to see “what kind of wood the man’s carved from” – which I didn’t learn until much later. But I had already taken a liking to her antagonism; had started to explore my limits, to see what kind of wood _she’d_ been carved from, and before we realized it, it had turned into something of a game.

As long as it concerned experiments on “assistant level” – she always said that with a provocative wink –, we teased and taunted and tried to trick each other into giving up.

And no matter what she said, according to my calculations, I was currently winning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: I already had this prompt before I wrote the first part. It was one out of three I was given for Valentine's Day. But once I had written “Experiments”, I thought it fit very well into this universe, so I picked it up for this companion piece, instead of letting it collect dust. ;)


	15. Speak In Flowers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s the last of my three Valentine’s prompts. It’s three weeks late, but the next Valentine’s Day will come around faster than we think. ;)

**I was looking forward to February the fourteenth** – this year for the first time of my life. Up to now, I’d never cared for that day, but five months ago I had inherited my aunt’s flower shop and traditionally, Valentine’s Day was one of the most profitable days of the year.

 _I_ thought, people shouldn’t just tell their loved ones what they mean to them on anniversaries and one random commercial day in winter. But hey, I didn’t object to the additional income – and there wasn’t a better time than this to send my special variety “on its mission”.

My family had always been good with plants, but I had managed something extraordinary: I was able to give them a purpose.

Those who bought a Valentine’s bouquet this year would have to be completely honest to the recipients. For some, this would be a blessing, for others a curse... depending on how honest they’d been with their feelings before.

Was I manipulative? Certainly. Would my intervention break some hearts? Definitely. But my flower would make some people indescribably happy, too – and to me it was worth it, because when you brought somebody flowers, your feelings should be real, shouldn’t they?


	16. With A Side Of Doomsday

** The birds fled from the trees.  ** Afterwards, it was deathly quiet in the little village at the foot of the Great Mountain. Due to the hard work, the adults there had always been rather reserved. But weeks ago, the most recent famine had silenced the laughing children as well.

Now that the birds were gone, there was nothing that could have covered the nearing rumble on the horizon. The villagers exchanged nervous glances. They were used to heavy thunderstorms, but the rumble didn’t sound like thunder.

And then came the water.

The Great Mountain lay between the village and the sea, a fair way off the shore. But even so, massive waves broke over the foothills of the mountain.

The flood carried the spoils of its destruction: uprooted trees, dead animals, mud and rubble. The people had to watch helplessly as the water rose just high enough that it ruined half of the already scanty harvest.

By some miracle, the village itself was spared, but for many days the Great Mountain was an island and held the residents captive. When the water finally retreated, it left a lot of fish behind.

At least nobody would starve in the near future.


	17. The Traveller

**She sat on a yellow suitcase; between her feet sat a pug.** At such a big station, this shouldn’t be a rare sight. There were many people here who sat on suitcases or had animals with them. But a _yellow_ suitcase? People hadn’t seen anything like that in a long time. The whispering and open staring didn’t seem to bother the young woman – she rather scratched the dog’s ears.

When a man from the crowd finally dared to ask her about her suitcase, it wasn’t her, who reacted, but the dog: He growled like there was no tomorrow and tried to look larger than he was. Not that that made much of a difference with a pug.

The young woman talked soothingly to the animal and then apologized to the man: “I can never travel with a different suitcase. Nero always gets insufferable, if it’s not this one.”

“But you are aware that the government has banned Yellow?” the man objected worriedly.

She didn’t say it out loud, but she’d always thought the decree was ridiculous. So she simply replied: “If I have learned one thing over the years, it’s that I’d rather argue with the authorities than with him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my 2nd attempt at this prompt. The 1st resulted in an overly complicated story that I couldn't bring to a decent end, even after almost 400 words. So I scrapped that one and started over. I like this version a lot better. :)


	18. The Suspect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... really creative title, I know... ^^;

**I saw that his left eye was missing its eyelashes.** When I pointed it out to the others, they were surprised. The photo had been pinned to the board for days, but nobody had noticed that detail.

It didn’t really help us, however, because none of us knew if his eyelashes could have grown back in the meantime. Then again: Who was crazy enough to cut their eyelashes, and then just for one eye? But “probably permanent feature” just wasn’t good enough for the search.

It was _so_ frustrating! The man appeared to be a phantom. It was a miracle that one of our investigators had been able to take a photo of him at all. That tiny success had happened almost a month ago and since then he hadn’t been seen anywhere.

Now, people were beginning to speculate that instead of being a suspect, he might actually be a victim. Over the last few weeks, enough unidentifiable bodies had ended up in forensics. So it was possible.

–––

Four days later, the man stood in our office – with a cut on his face that couldn’t be older than a day – and claimed to have killed the murderer of his daughter.


	19. Waiting Game

**She’d been talking at him for several minutes now – but Walter only listened with half an ear, because he needed to hear what was said on the radio.** He’d been waiting the whole evening for the gold ingots to be found, but there hadn’t been anything about it on the news, so far. And it _would_ be mentioned on the news if the ingots turned up. They were special, after all.

Meanwhile, he had to pretend he liked the company of the high society at this party. Hadn’t anybody noticed that he didn’t belong here, yet? He’d been so sure his cover would be blown within the first few minutes. But apparently he only had to hold his tongue and look vaguely interested to pass as a gentleman.

Half an hour before midnight, they finally made the anticipated announcement: “It has just been confirmed that the three missing ingots from last week’s confiscated fake gold have been recovered...”

A murmur went through the crowd, and after a short, speechless moment, the lady at Walter’s side blithely  continued to chatter. Moments later, the mayor left the ballroom hastily and ashen-faced.

“Gotcha,” Walter thought, ditched the woman and took up the chase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first prompt I needed to modify a little to suit the story better.The original sentence came without a name for the protagonist, which would have caused confusion with the introduction of the mayor at the latest...
> 
> BTW, I imagine the story to be set in the 1920s.


	20. Stay Gone!

**The backpack was gone.** Finally! Relieved, he wiped the sweat off his forehead. After countless unsuccessful attempts, he’d feared he’d never be able to get rid of it: Whenever he thought he’d found a good hiding spot, the rucksack was back at his door the next morning. He didn’t understand how that was even possible. Because who took the time to observe someone long and intently enough to bring their “lost belongings” back to them, afterwards? That person would have to be massively bored…

But this time, it would _not_ happen again. He’d been careful to drive out into the desert for miles; had made sure that nobody was following him and had buried the backpack between a few thorny bushes. The hole had been over six feet deep, and he’d tread down hard on it afterwards.

“Let’s see if it gets dug up from _this_ ,” he thought, satisfied with himself. But he was uneasy just thinking about the possibility. Now he wished he’d never stolen that backpack. If only he had known what was in there, beforehand!

But this was a learning experience for him: No more thefts! From now on he’d only ever do things that were legal.


	21. Welcome To The Village

** Strangers weren’t exactly welcome. ** That’s why she’d been advised to extreme caution, before the starting her journey. But what she experienced on her arrival in the little village told a different story: All the people were friendly to her. They greeted her with smiles, and they gladly told her the path to the log cabin at the edge of the forest. She didn’t understand why the “outside world” made such a fuss about the village.

In the next few days, she often went into the woods to draw for her finals. Once she met the ranger there, who marveled at her pictures and then told her they’d be felling trees there the next day, so she’d better stay away. And again, she wondered why the villagers had been described as antagonistic to her.

She got the answer to her question when she went shopping in the village’s store a day later: A man with a backpack stood at the counter and asked about hiking routes in the vicinity. The cashier was very unapproachable about it.

After the hiker had left, she asked the cashier why she’d been treated differently. The old man grinned at her: “Because  _ you’re _ one of us!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The “and he isn’t” is heavily implied. :D
> 
> What exactly makes her one of “them” is up to you. I do have a theory, but I won’t tell. ;)


	22. At All Costs

**Soon, she’d be able to leave her hiding place.** With bated breath, Emily stared at her father’s pocket watch and counted the seconds.

In less than a minute, she’d have won ten times in a row! During the nine previous games, she’d hidden so well that her siblings hadn’t been able to find her – not even her eldest brother, who always found all the others within the first five minutes.

She was so focused on the seconds hand that she didn’t hear the light scratching noise to her left at first. So she was quite startled when something small scurried across her feet. She stared into the dark corners of the pantry with her heart pounding, trying to spot the culprit.

A squeak from under the shelf confirmed her fear: She was sharing her hiding place with a mouse. How _awful!_

Normally, she’d have screamed, but this time she’d catch her siblings’ attention – which was absolutely out of the question! She’d only have to endure another half-minute. Surely, that must be possible! The mouse, after all, was small enough that it wouldn’t be able to harm her – apart from scratching and biting her. _Good heavens_...

No, Emily would not scream!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Emily = to strive / excel / rival
> 
> I looked for popular names in the 19th century and I liked Emily best. Then I looked up the name’s meaning and found it actually suited my protagonist really well. If only everything would work out this well... ;)


	23. Maybe he should be called Murphy?

** Three hours had passed already.  ** So far, so meaningless. I couldn’t decide if that was good or bad. On the one hand, it wasn’t nice having to wait this long, on the other hand, there hadn’t been any bad news either. So, presumably nothing had gone wrong – yet. But you never knew with Morris… Even an already done deal could fall through if he was involved.

When he finally came back to our hotel room, twenty minutes later, he limped and sported a black eye. Oh, great! That’s what I’d thought!

He must have noticed my eye-rolling because he was quick to explain that the deal had been sealed as desired.

“You  _ desired  _ the beating?” I asked him sceptically.

“Not the beating. I’m not a masochist! And I wasn’t beaten by our… uh… business partners.  _ They  _ were pretty pleasant today.”

“And why are you this damaged, if they didn’t do anything?”

“Well… On my way back, I saw a dude steal this woman’s purse. And since my day had been going well, so far, I decided to help her out. Unfortunately, the thief had a hard-hitting friend.”

The lady had been thankful enough to give him her number, at least.  



	24. Delusion Or Reality?

**Then I also found small glass fragments in my noodles.** I rubbed my hand over my eyes. _Glass fragments_. Of course! The delusions were starting to get out of hand now. A few minutes ago I actually had believed the tea was eating holes into the cup. It felt as if the whole world had it in for me and tried to get rid of me through my lunch. But the tea had been fine since I was obviously still alive. Although... I hadn’t had any hallucinations before taking the first few sips...

Warily, I sniffed at my tea. There was indeed a slightly sweet scent emanating from it that shouldn’t be there. But I wasn’t sure if the odor was real or just another misperception. So I observed the staff. Someone had to have tampered with the tea, after all.

“Are you all right?”

I jumped. Where the hell had the waiter come from so suddenly?

“What’s it to you?” My question came out harsher than I had intended. The waiter looked accordingly astonished. But could anyone blame me, if the man might want to do me harm?

Just at that moment, his face transformed into a diabolic grimace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a mean prompt... I like to give my stories twists that my prompter doesn’t expect. But this prompt really didn’t make that easy for me.  
> ... also, I don’t like the story’s title. XD (But it fits, especially when it comes to the last sentence. :P)


	25. Never Heard Of Observation Skills

**Nobody knew what truly had happened.** But Kiki had seen everything. And had the humans listened to her, the case would have been solved already. Instead, they ran around aimlessly and tried to find a thief – a thief, mind you, who didn’t even exist.

Currently, the master of the house was scolding the kitchen-maid, and Kiki didn’t understand why. It was obvious, after all, that a kitchen-maid didn’t have access to the study. So how could she have stolen the man’s golden pocket watch from there? The longer the search lasted, the more outrageous these people’s theories got…

Why did humans always think in such complicated ways? Didn’t they know that there were simple solutions, too? If only they’d pay attention to Kiki! But no matter what she did, the crazed humans didn’t notice the little monkey. Not even excited jumping helped – it was exasperating! She’d specifically been trained to bring her owners things, but now she was tethered and couldn’t put an end to the drama.

After the master had sent the crying maid away, he angrily slammed the door when he left. Then Kiki was alone in the room – with the watch, which was stuck in a chair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew... Finished!  
> This story had been shelved for 6 months, after I’d written the first paragraph of the German version. Hopefully, I won’t get distracted by other projects again, once I get a new prompt... ;)


End file.
